


her grace's knight

by LightningRooks



Category: Fire Emblem: Kakusei | Fire Emblem: Awakening
Genre: F/F, fe femslash week, fefemslashweek2016, major character death but also major character undeath if u know what i mean, ok so if you're squeamish i wouldn't read chapters two or three when i put them up bc, well you'll figure it out
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-08-29
Updated: 2016-08-31
Packaged: 2018-08-11 20:30:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,828
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7906540
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LightningRooks/pseuds/LightningRooks
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"thank...you. for staying."<br/>"anything for you, my love."</p><p>phila survived the onslaught of arrows, and does everything in her power to protect her lover.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> hiya! this is my project for fe femslash week, featuring one of my favorite couples - emmeryn and phila! there will be 5 chapters so buckle in kiddos. this is a sort of backstory/au for my rp blog for phila, ofwingedknights on tumblr.

the weight was crushing down on phila, who was close to passing out, when she heard lissa’s scream. why was the princess screaming? why was she even here? phila could barely remember, could barely think, until she heard a sickening crack on the earth not far from her. and then, everything fell back into place with razor sharp clarity.

emmeryn. 

phila somehow instinctively knew what had happened. emmeryn would rather die than make her siblings choose between her and the world. and that was what she did. she died. emmeryn...emmeryn might have had the grace, the strength, to accept phila’s passing, should she have died first. but phila was a much weaker woman.

not long before heading back to ylisstol, emm had given her a sacred stave, handed down from one exalt to another. a stave with the ability to bring back the recently deceased. it was not as well known as falchion or the fire emblem, since it could only be used once. only under the most dire of circumstances, emm had told her, was it supposed to be used. phila turned her head, and she could see the crumpled heap that had once been her lover.

gods be damned, this was the moment. emm would never approve that it was used on her, but phila really didn’t care.

how phila was supposed to revive emm with all the risen archers around was another story. she could hear the mad king’s laughter and it made her blood boil. she’d kill the son of a bitch with her bare hands if she could. she heard basilio’s voice- they were leaving. _no_ , she wanted to scream. they couldn’t just leave emmeryn’s body in the dirt...could they? would they?

phila knew that now, while everyone was distracted, was the best time to use the stave. no one would notice a dead pegasus knight clutching a stave.

the first thing to deal with, however, was the crushing weight of phila’s dead pegasus, which had fallen on her. she could kick her legs and wiggle her toes- a good sign. she’d cracked a few ribs, which would need either a stave or a few weeks. her arms though...her left arm was fine, but her right arm had caught three arrows in it when she had blocked her face, and it had broken under the weight of her pegasus. 

gods, she need a stave now, before it got infected. no stave could heal an infection, and the last thing phila wanted to do was cut off her own arm. 

firsts things first, however. emmeryn came first. phila reached into the sack on her saddle, on the side that had toppled onto her, and found the stave. she wiggled and pulled it up just enough so the orb was aimed at emmeryn, and phila cast her spell, letting the wind carry blessing to the body of her lover.

_‘naga, please bring my love back to me. the world needs her grace, her kindness. the world needs her passion for peace.’_

there was no way to tell if emmeryn was alive from this distance, but phila could have sworn she saw her grace’s back move, as if drawing a breath.

phila sighed, realizing there was little more she could do with the risen all around, she laid back and sank into unconsciousness. 

just before everything went black, she heard a voice call for the exalt’s body to be brought into the castle, and the body of her captain.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> phila gains an unlikely ally

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> here's chapter two! i'd like to mention that the way i don't use capital letters at all in this fic is a conscious choice- it's a stylistic thing. warnings for amputation and gross arms wounds!

when phila came to, the first thing she noticed was the overwhelming smell of cat piss. she could practically feel a pair of eyes boring holes into her, and she remained still, not wanting to give herself away to whoever might be nearby.

“get up, gangrel is dead,” said a stern voice, and upon the abrupt statement, phila’s eyes flew open to see a woman in her thirties putting away a small vial of smelling salts. she wore the uniform of plegian wyvern knight. 

“why-” phila started, her voice hoarse from disuse, “why are you telling me this?”

“because if you’re going to escape with the exalt, it has to be soon. this will likely be your only chance,” the knight said. 

“but gangrel is dead,” phila said, not quite understanding what was going on.

“gangrel filled most of his inner circle with grimleal, who will want you both dead just as much as he did,” she said, matter of factly. “gangrel may be dead, but this isn’t over.”

“it never is,” phila said, under her breath. the knight turned and walked to another table, like the one phila was on, and was doing...something. when phila tried to lean up on her arms to see her better, pain shot through her arms like liquid fire. she screamed in pain, causing the knight to drop whatever was in her hands. phila dropped back down to the table, breathing heavily. 

her right arm was bright red with yellow pus leaking out of the arrow wounds, which had only worsened since she’d passed out. even darker red streaks ran across her arm, starting from her wounds. the broken bone and the infection had caused phila’s forearm to swell, and phila knew that there was no way her arm could be saved. not now, not under these conditions.

“yeah,” the knight said, “that arm’s gonna have to go.”

“where’s...emmeryn?” phila asked, ignoring the knight’s flippant comment.

the knight turned around, and pointed to the other side of the room. phila’s head turned, and she saw emmeryn, deathly pale but breathing. phila might have wept with joy, had the knight not started talking.

“she hasn’t woken up or moved once. she’s alive but comatose. you need to get her out here, and fast.” 

phila looked over at the knight, who had come back to her side with an axe in one hand and a stave in the other. fuck, this was really happening. she was actually going to lose her arm. phila had failed her liege, failed her love, in every possible way. how was she supposed to protect emmeryn now?

“i can’t hold a lance with one arm,” phila said quietly. 

“no, but you can hold an axe. you can hold a sword. don’t give up on yourself before you’ve even lost your arm,” the knight said. she placed the stave leaning on the table as she prepped the axe and phila’s arm for a swift amputation. 

“i... i’m gonna look away. don’t give me any warning, just do it,” phila said, looking over at emm. she closed her eyes and tried not to tense up, lest that make the knight’s job more difficult.

a few seconds later, the axe fell. 

phila had blacked out from the sheer pain of it, but not before hearing the sound of metal on bone- a sound that would haunt her in a way none of the other sounds of battle had, and when she regained consciousness, the knight was sealing up the wound with a stave. soon, it’d look as if she’d lost her arm years ago.

“you’ll come back from this. i’ve seen many of my knights come back from amputation, and continue to serve after,” the knight said, as phila took several deep breaths to ground herself. there was something wrapped in cloth on the table where the knight had gotten the axe. phila tried not to think about it. 

“wait, your knights?” phila repeated, trying to focus on something else. “who are you anyway?” 

“name’s alia. i’m the captain of the wyvern knights,” she stated plainly.

“why...why are you doing this?” phila asked, perplexed. “you have everything to lose.”

“no. i have everything to gain. death and destruction does not make a country great - something you and i both know very well. i want to make plegia a place where my baby boys can grow up and thrive,” alia said, finishing up healing what remained of phila’s arm.

“you have children?” phila asked, surprised. she sat up once alia had finished. “how old are they?”

“well, my wife did all the hard work. i just helped a little bit,” alia said with a wink. “and they’re twins, born not six months ago. what about you and the exalt? do you have kids? or are planning on it?”

phila spluttered. “i- we- how do you know about us?”

alia snorted. “you were surrounded by your dying knights, and you were in bad shape yourself, yet you used one of the most powerful staves in existence to heal the exalt. that’s either stupidity or love. and besides, the way the exalt screamed your name when you fell...it was obvious.”

“oh,” phila said, moving to stand up. 

“now, you two need to go. i can’t give you a horse or a wyvern, but there’s a battlefield not far from here- there will be injured wyverns and dead riders- take one of the wyverns. i’ve packed you a sack with water and food for the both of you. there’s also a salve in there to heal up a wyvern’s wings,” alia said, handing phila a bag that could be slung over her whole body and not just her shoulders. 

“i’ve never ridden a wyvern before though,” phila said, walking to emmeryn to pick her up. she stopped when she realized that she’d have to sling emmeryn over her right shoulder in order to carry a weapon with her good arm.

“it’s all about control. you have to show the wyvern that you aren’t afraid. that you’re in control. besides, plegian wyverns are surprising gentle when not in battle. you’ll be just fine,” alia said, helping phila place emmeryn over her bad arm, and tied a piece of cord around emmeryn and phila both, effectively tying her in place. 

“that’s going to be hard to get used to,” phila said, moving what remained of her right arm out of instinct to try to hold emmeryn. “it doesn’t feel like it’s gone. i can still feel it but it’s just...not there.”

alia shrugged before replying. “that’s another thing. when you find the battlefield, look for a wyvern whose rider was also missing an arm. it’ll make the transition easier on the both of you. they’ll be hovering around or standing guard over their owners.”

“alright,” phila said, nodding. alia moved to fasten the same stave she had used to fix phila’s arm to their sack, and handed her the same axe used to sever her arm off. 

“go now. the only knights on guard now are the ones loyal to me. they’ll look the other way, but only until sunrise. be as far away as possible by then. and head east,” alia instructed. 

phila nodded, and headed for the door. turning one last time to look at her unlikely ally, she navigated the halls of the plegian castle, and ran out into the desert under the cover of night.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> alia will probably be coming back in the last chapter, so don't you fret! she decides to stay when all the other soldiers desert in an attempt to lessen the bloodshed- similar to corrin's motives in conquest. she wants to change plegia for the better from the inside.

**Author's Note:**

> please comment on what you liked, what you didn't, and what could be better.


End file.
